DAVE: what do you actually want from herDAVE: do you want her to stop drinking faygo and falling asleep in puddles of red fructose corn slobberDAVE: or do you want her to somehow address the root of those habits and cut all that out for goodKARKAT: YES! I WANT HER TO DO THAT!KARKAT: THE LATTER THING.DAVE: yeah i can understand where youre coming fromDAVE: but in situations like this i think you need to remind yourself theres only so much you can do for somebodyDAVE: and maybe they arent going to want or need your help and you just have to figure out how to deal with thatDAVE: like at some point in your life one of your friends might start spending all her time with a guy you think is bad newsDAVE: and you have to decide if you need to intervene as a friend or just let it go because people can change or drift apart or whatever because thats just something that happensKARKAT: DAVEKARKAT: YOUR WISDOM, MY GODKARKAT: IT'S KNOCKING MY SOCKS OFF. HOLY SHIT, PLEASE TELL ME THE SECRET TO YOUR WISE WAYS.KARKAT: AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, MAYBE YOU COULD TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.DAVE: look all im saying isDAVE: there comes a time in every young womans life when she has to come to terms with the decision to gradually morph into a juggalo while all her friends and loved ones watch in dismayDAVE: terezi has strolled through the dark carnival and taken a great brooding whiff of that decisions festive asshole and the choice she has made is all too clearDAVE: shes down with the clownKARKAT: NO, DON'T SAY THAT.DAVE: its true manDAVE: you can live in denial for only so longDAVE: but as your bro i have to say it like it isDAVE: she and gamzee manDAVE: that is literally a thingDAVE: they are in the hate square togetherDAVE: total kismespades dudeKARKAT: NO, THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN.KARKAT: I MEAN, I KNOW THAT.KARKAT: JUST WHY DO YOU HAVE TO PUT EVERYTHING SO "COLORFULLY"?KARKAT: I GUESS I DO THE SAME THING, BUT YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO TAKE THINGS TO A DIFFERENT LEVEL OF GROSS. JUST PLEASE SAY SHIT NORMALLY FOR A CHANGE, OK.KARKAT: REGARDING GAMZEE, YEAH. I KNEW ABOUT THAT ALREADY.DAVE: ohDAVE: really?DAVE: then what the fuck have i been tiptoeing around all this time god damnDAVE: i thought this was supposed to be like this "big secret" that would "destroy you" if you found outKARKAT: MOTHERFUCKER, PLEASE.KARKAT: DO YOU THINK I'M AN IDIOT? I'VE SUSPECTED THIS WAS GOING ON FOR A LONG TIME.KARKAT: I WAS JUST BEING LIKE YOU, PLAYING IT COOL, LETTING HER DO WHATEVER.DAVE: then why is it a problem nowKARKAT: BECAUSE THIS IS THE LAST STRAW! WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE READY FOR ACTION BY NOW.KARKAT: NOT COMATOSE, HALF NAKED AND FAYGO STICKY.KARKAT: GOD, I WONDER WHAT SORT OF BULLSHIT HE'S GOT HER BELIEVING IN NOW? ABOUT THE MIRTHFUL MESSIAHS AND SHANGRI LA AND ALL THAT GARBAGE.KARKAT: IT MAKES ME SO SAD TO THINK SHE'S CAUGHT UP IN HIS SUPERSTITIOUS WEB OF LIES.KARKAT: IT'S BEEN AWFUL WATCHING THE PERSON I USED TO KNOW SLOWLY DRIFT AWAY FROM ME, TO THE POINT WHERE SHE MIGHT AS WELL BE GONE.KARKAT: HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO DEAL WITH THAT?DAVE: whatKARKAT: YOU AND SHE USED TO SEE EACH OTHER ALL THE TIME. WHAT HAPPENED?DAVE: like i said i just put it behind meDAVE: she started sneaking around in vents and stuff acting suspicious trying to hide the fact that she was seeing himDAVE: like she was obviously ashamed of it and worried how id reactDAVE: but it was hella transparent that was going on so i just saidDAVE: thats fine yall can do your blackrom thing with the juggalo its your decisionDAVE: but i cant keep playing alongDAVE: i cant do the quadrant thing its just too weird for meDAVE: im not a troll and im not all open minded about gettin multiculturalDAVE: i still dont understand the spades thing and it makes me really fuckin uncomfortable even trying to imagine how that works and i sure as fuck dont want to date anybody whos got a hateclown on the sideDAVE: so i said no hard feelings i still like you and all, do whatever makes you happy ill just be over here in the hyper gravity chamber training to beat lord englishKARKAT: WE HAVE A HYPER GRAVITY CHAMBER???DAVE: noKARKAT: OHDAVE: but what about youDAVE: havent you been talking to gamzee this whole timeDAVE: or is he just balls out lying to you about sneakin around the meteor with tereziDAVE: i thought moirails were supposed to be open with each other about stuff like thatKARKAT: YEAH. UH.KARKAT: GAMZEE ENDED OUR MOIRALLEGIANCE QUITE SOME TIME AGO.DAVE: oh shitDAVE: sorry to hear about thatKARKAT: IT'S FINE. IT WAS REALLY A DEAD END PALE RELATIONSHIP.KARKAT: AT FIRST IT REALLY SEEMED LIKE I WAS A NECESSARY PART OF HIS LIFE, KEEPING HIS SHIT UNDER CONTROL...KARKAT: BUT AS TIME WENT ON HE JUST GOT COMPLETELY DISINTERESTED AND WASN'T KEEPING UP WITH HIS END OF THE THING AT ALL.KARKAT: HE STARTED GETTING SO UNBELIEVABLY SELF SATISFIED AND PIOUS, LIKE WAY MORE THAN HE EVER WAS BEFORE.KARKAT: LIKE HE'S JUST SO COMPLETELY CONVINCED HE'S FOUND HIS CALLING, THAT THIS SESSION IS THE GATEWAY TO THE PROMISED LAND WHERE HE'LL FULFILL HIS DESTINY.KARKAT: HE'S SO CAUGHT UP IN HIS IDIOTIC SCHEMES HE COULDN'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ME ANYMORE.KARKAT: WHATEVER. AT LEAST HE STOPPED KILLING PEOPLE.DAVE: amazing i spent three years on this rock and never said one thing to the guyDAVE: i saw him once thoDAVE: just a glimpse in a dark hallwayDAVE: it was kinda like seeing a blurry purple bigfoot with a huge bonerKARKAT: OH GOD!KARKAT: THAT FUCKING GOD TIER OUTFIT.KARKAT: WHAT A GODDAMN FAKER. I CAN'T FOR THE LIFE OF ME IMAGINE WHERE HE GOT THAT THING.KARKAT: I KNOW KANAYA SURE AS HELL DIDN'T MAKE IT FOR HIM.KARKAT: THE MAN LITERALLY HAS NO SHAME.DAVE: why is he wearing itKARKAT: I DON'T KNOW!KARKAT: I DON'T THINK EVEN HE KNOWS.KARKAT: MAYBE TO MAKE A "GOOD IMPRESSION" ON HIS FAKE ASS RELIGIOUS IDOL, AFTER HE THRUSTS HIS SACRED COD PIECE THROUGH THE GATES OF SHANGRI LA.DAVE: ahahaha the best thing we ever do together is slam this assholes dumb religionKARKAT: YEAH!!!DAVE: really its the most hilarious fucking horseshit ive ever heardDAVE: i mean pretty much all religions are wrong but theres wrong and then theres WRONGDAVE: as in ZERO CHANCE YOU ARE EVER PROVEN RIGHT ABOUT EVEN A SINGLE THING DUDE, EVER EVER EVERKARKAT: HAHAHA! IT'S SO TRUE.KARKAT: I WISH I COULD SEE THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WHEN HE FINALLY REALIZES EVERYTHING HE BELIEVES IS A LIE.DAVE: be one sad clown that dayDAVE: his bulge will probably deflate and make this high pitch noise plus corresponding flatulenceKARKAT: HEY DAVE.KARKAT: WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN TO US AFTER WE MEET UP WITH THE OTHERS.KARKAT: I MEAN, AS FRIENDS.DAVE: what do you mean as friendsKARKAT: I MEAN WILL WE STILL GET TO BE BROS.DAVE: uhDAVE: yeah?DAVE: no offense dog but thats a dumb and neurotic questionKARKAT: NO BUT SEEKARKAT: WE'RE GOING TO MEET ALL THESE OTHER PEOPLE.KARKAT: JOHN AMONG THEM.KARKAT: AND JOHN IS YOUR BEST FRIEND, SO YOU WILL OSTENSIBLY RESUME THAT FRIENDSHIP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF.KARKAT: AND JOHN AND I HAD A FEW TESTY CONVERSATIONS WITH EACH OTHER ONE DAY, AND IN MOST OF THOSE I MADE A FOOL OF MYSELF.KARKAT: AND I GUESS WE BECAME FRIENDS THAT DAY? MAYBE??KARKAT: BUT THE REALITY IS IT WAS JUST ONE DAY, AND HE'D BE WELL WITHIN A REASONABLE FRAME OF MIND NOT TO GIVE A CRAP IN HINDSIGHT ABOUT THE GUY WHO TROLLED HIM ONCE THREE YEARS AGO.KARKAT: AND THE SAME GOES FOR JADE!KARKAT: I THOUGHT WE HAD A DECENT RAPPORT, BUT AGAIN, IT WAS ONE DAY FOREVER AGO. SHE PROBABLY BARELY REMEMBERS ME AT THIS POINT.KARKAT: WHEREAS THAT DOESN'T MATTER FOR YOU, BECAUSE YOU GO WAY BACK WITH THEM. THIS IS LIKE A FUCKING *HEARTFELT REUNION* FOR YOU GUYS.KARKAT: BUT WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE ME??KARKAT: I CAN HARDLY CALL GAMZEE A FRIEND ANYMORE. WHO KNOWS IF MY FRIENDSHIP WITH TEREZI WILL EVER BE WHAT IT WAS BEFORE. I USED TO BE PRETTY CLOSE WITH KANAYA, BUT NOW SHE AND ROSE NEVER LEAVE EACH OTHER ALONE FOR MORE THAN A FUCKING MINUTE.KARKAT: ALL MY OTHER FRIENDS ARE DEAD, AND NOW WE'RE LEAVING THE DREAM BUBBLES BEHIND.KARKAT: AND THEN THERE'S YOU.KARKAT: SOKARKAT: I'M JUST WONDERING WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.DAVE: you forgot the mayorDAVE: youre pretty damn tight with the mayor arent youKARKAT: THE MAYOR'S FRIENDSHIP IS A UNIVERSAL CONSTANT, AND I AM INSULTED BEYOND COMPREHENSION AS WELL AS MY CAPACITY TO VOMIT THAT YOU WOULD INSINUATE OTHERWISE.DAVE: yeah the mayor rulesDAVE: but as usual you are overcomplicating thisDAVE: just like you overcomplicate everythingDAVE: friendship leadership romanceDAVE: shipping grids and dick battlesDAVE: this is real simpleDAVE: our meteor will somehow tokyo drift to a dead stop in the new sessionDAVE: at which point we will keep being bros for life or somethingDAVE: i will start being friends with john and jade again because they are my friends and never stopped being thatDAVE: john will also be your friend because hes cool and also a doofus who is easy to be friends withDAVE: jade will be your friend too cause shes nice and likes being friends with peopleDAVE: i can personally guarantee that she will be happy to see youDAVE: and as for the new people i dont know about them but theyll probably be your friends tooDAVE: all i know is two of them are my parents and two of them are johns parents and aint no rule that says you cant be friends with your bros mom and popDAVE: especially when your bros mom and pop are a couple of sassy teensDAVE: as for terezi i dont know i guess well see what happensDAVE: and as for gamzee fuck that guy with a balloon poodleDAVE: friendship lesson secured the endTEREZI: ZZZZZZZ ZZNK SNOOORTTEREZI: SM4CK SM4CKTEREZI: NNNRNNNNNNNRRNGNGNHGHGL3KARKAT: UH OH, LOOK WHO'S STARTING TO COME AROUND!

So what do we call this pause? I've been batting ideas around all day. We could go with the obvious choice, the MINIGIGAPAUSE. Or maybe, MEGAPAUSE 2: BACK IN THE MEGASADDLE. Or if that makes too much sense, we could always settle on the MICROTERAPAUSE. As you can see, there are so many incredibly intelligent and meaningful things we could call this pause. Deciding how to refer to the pause is an exercise that I will leave to the reader. Feel free to discuss the matter with friends. Or strangers. Anyone who will listen really. If they start to run away, I strongly recommend you chase them.

Why don't we say that A665 begins on 4/13. That's a fun number that we all can get excited about. I have a lot of catch-up work to do between now and then. Not the least of which is drawing the actual content to be posted. But also a lot of gamedev work. Game production is rolling pretty hot right now. Stuff is being churned out almost faster than I can keep track of. Did I mention? I accidentally started running a game studio a little while ago. Whoops, sorry about that. There are all these people being paid to make things happen, and I have to be like "Yeah, keep doing that stuff, everybody." It's getting pretty easy to lose track of how many people work for What Pumpkin. My last estimate was somewhere between 30 and 1000. The true figure is a very frisky moving target.

A6A6A5, a.k.a. Caliborn's Masterpiece, is actually done. It's probably better to hold off posting it until 4/13, when more content will soon follow aftewards. I am sure pausing on that note for months would mess with your head a lot more than the note we're already pausing on. I sometimes feel I have at least a modest responsibility to manage your sanity. It'll be tough sitting on this content though. Tougher than sitting on all of A664 for the better part of a year. I don't think it is out of line to describe it as the best material this website will ever exhibit. It will be all down hill from there, in every direction. Even up.

Speaking of sanity management, way back when, I was pretty on the fence about posting A664 spaced out over months like I did, vs. all at once. Doing the latter in hindsight probably would have been a fucked up thing to do to the internet though. The GAME OVER fallout alone was a bit much as it was. Including it in tandem with the rest of it? Not sure what to make of that. Let's review the CONTENT CRUSH that would have entailed. Bad Anime -> Game Over -> Sadstuck -> Lowas Quest -> 100 retconned panels of oil -> A bunch of other shit -> Punky Serket -> Fantroll Storytime -> 8 password pages -> The Kiss On Horse Mountain -> and finally -> The Punchline. You know, that's an awful lot of baloney to publish. I think the fell-swoop reaction to all that would have been quite a thing to behold, but also, perhaps an irresponsible thing to do to a hapless fanbase after a year in hibernation. I'm told that in 2015, young people are heavily susceptible to "the feels", and trifling with those forces could be injurious to their future development. Wait, did that just sound like something your grandpa would say? Mother fuck, where did I put my cane. Oh right, I snapped it in half from shaking it at the sky.

I may have been in the process of making a point there, but we're going to have to pick this up another time. The comic isn't going to pause itself!!!

Over the last couple months, I have been surreptitiously collapsing several update horses into single, bigger horses. This means A6A6I4 is going to end a little sooner than previously advertised. Same total page count, but finishing sooner. Please consult the important horse calendar below.

So what happens when A6A6I4 is done? I'm not quite sure yet. I'm still working on everything that comes after that. I've written it mostly, but haven't drawn anything yet. There will almost certainly be another pause, but I'm not sure how long it will be yet. I will let you know after 1/19.